Here’s the skinny on DRACULAS:
A DYING MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE…
Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion—an artifact he paid millions for…a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer’s field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull’s razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.
OPENS THE DOOR TO AN ANCIENT EVIL...
A rural hospital. A slow night in the ER. Until Moorecook arrives strapped to a gurney, where he promptly codes and dies.
WHERE DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
Four well-known horror authors pool their penchants for scares and thrills, and tackle one of the greatest of all legends, with each writer creating a unique character and following them through a vampire outbreak in a secluded hospital.
The goal was simple: write the most intense book they possibly could.
Which they did.
A word of warning:
Within these pages, you will find no black capes, no satin-lined coffins, no brooding heartthrobs who want to talk about your feelings. Forget sunlight and stakes. Throw out your garlic and your crosses. This is the Anti-TWILIGHT.
About the authors:
F. PAUL WILSON is an award-winning, NY Times bestselling novelist whose work spans horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, young adult, and virtually everything between. He is best known as the author of THE KEEP and creator of the urban mercenary Repairman Jack. (http://www.repairmanjack.com)
JACK KILBORN is a pen name of J.A. Konrath, who has written six Jack Daniels thrillers. The seventh, SHAKEN, will be available this October. Kilborn is the author of AFRAID, ENDURANCE, TRAPPED, and SERIAL UNCUT, (written with Blake Crouch) which has been downloaded more than 250,000 times. (http://www.jakonrath.com)
JEFF STRAND is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of such novels as PRESSURE, DWELLER, GRAVEROBBERS WANTED (NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY), BENJAMIN'S PARASITE, and THE SINISTER MR. CORPSE. His secret shame is SUCKERS, co-written with J.A. Konrath. (http://www.jeffstrand.com)
BLAKE CROUCH is the author of four thrillers, DESERT PLACES, LOCKED DOORS, ABANDON, and SNOWBOUND, all published by St. Martin’s Press. His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen, THRILLER 2, and other anthologies. (http://www.blakecrouch.com)
JET: What prompted you folks to write a novel together?
Blake, Joe, Paul and Jeff: We all know and like each other, respect each other’s writing, and when Joe came up with such a hot title and premise, it seemed like a no-brainer.
JET: With voice being the key to any story, how did four very distinct and talented authors come together to a meeting of the minds to produce a novel with consistency in the voice and tone?
Blake, Joe, Paul and Jeff: First, we set all egos aside. We opened our work to each other to read in very early stages, and tried to stay receptive to feedback. One of the cool bonus features of this book is a 40,000-word email chain between the four of us, which shows a glimpse into our collaborative process, warts and all.
JET: Was there ever any disagreements on where the plot should go? If not, can you tell us about some of your more interesting collaboration sessions? If so, tell us about one that sticks out in your mind.
Blake, Joe, Paul and Jeff: Yes, we had major disagreements about the end, the fate of a character, and a scene toward the end we ended up taking out. It’s all chronicled in exhaustive detail in the bonus features of DRACULAS.
JET: Tell us a little about Draculas. What makes this a "must have" read?
Blake, Joe, Paul and Jeff: Pure Intensity. Horror. Major scares. Laugh-out-loud humor. And it all takes place in a hospital over 4 hours.
JET: What's next for each of you?
BLAKE: Next up for me is finalizing a new book I’ve just finished. My first two novels, DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS also just went up on Kindle for a reasonable $2.99, so I’m jazzed about that.
JOE: I've got two sci-fi ecopunk novels in the TIMECASTER series coming out in 2011 with Ace Berkley, and a few other super secret projects in the works. I'm writing the eighth Jack Daniels novel, called STIRRED, with Blake, which will also be the third in his Andrew Z. Thomas books (DESERT PLACES, LOCKED DOORS.) It's a wrap-up to both of our series.
JEFF: Next up for me is WOLF HUNT, which does for werewolves what DRACULAS did for vampires, except that I finished WOLF HUNT several months before DRACULAS, so actually it's DRACULAS that does for vampires what WOLF HUNT did for werewolves. WOLF HUNT is funnier, though.
PAUL: FATAL ERROR, the penultimate Repairman Jack novel, hit the street mid-October. Just finished a draft of THE DARK AT THE END, the (sort of) last Repairman Jack novel. I say "sort of" because the whole series ends with NIGHTWORLD which will come in 2012. Jack is a player in that novel, but the cast is an ensemble from across the Secret History.
Buy DRACULAS here!
My review of Draculas was posted on Monday October 18, 2010.
Next week, I have author Heather Brewer on my site for a pre-halloween minion fest! Join us for the fun and games.
Until next week,
Ciao,
JET.
